Photo GeekMan Offline Upload & Sell: Off
|
Cluttered Mind wrote:
Alright, I looked into those a little bit and think I'm coming along. We sold one model of Drobo when I worked at Best Buy and it sounded cool...but it was a low end model and I wasn't hooked. From an ease of use standpoint, sounds perfect. I'll go get one right now...
Rather, the accessibility of the QNAP sounds superior. I'm looking at a laptop, and to keep costs down I wouldn't be putting the largest SSD in it. The ability to upload to my NAS remotely would be wonderful. I guess the idea behind Thunderbolt was to be able to dump photos from my laptop when I returned from travels to clear the laptop off for the next adventure. While nice, it's not a priority.
I am coming to grips with how a separate Linux system would work. Would that offer the redundancy of RAID, accessibility of QNAP, or just be fun to buy another old computer to host a bunch of drives? While cool it seems a little too un-streamlined atm.
I'm assuming then that the NAS attaches straight to your router? No cables into any computer would be optimal, maybe the main workstation if speed would be a problem otherwise. Perhaps I should be in a different forum but I am really looking for opinions on working professionals in the photography field, not just a bunch of guys who know everything there is to know about networking. Thanks so much for your input so far, I really appreciate the many and varied opinions....Show more →
Drobo's are nice because they are simple and easy. However, the trade-off is speed and flexibility. They are a US based company with US based support and service.
A QNap NAS with the same amount of drives will cost you approximately the same amount of money (maybe more depending on the drives you buy) but be far more flexible and fast, with the trade-off being that it's a little bit more time consuming to configure. They are Taipei-based, but have an excellent support system via their website and vast community forum.
A Linux box running FreeNAS is inexpensive and super flexible. It's also as close to a "real" server as most individuals and SMBs will ever need. The trade-off however, is that even in it's simplest form it will take far more time and effort to set up than a standalone NAS box like a Drobo or QNap. Since this would be a "homemade" system YOU are the support provider, although there is a fairly large community willing to help you via forums on the web.
All of the above systems connect directly to your network via an ethernet (or dual ethernet) connection, no computer needed. It is also possible for all of them to be accessible remotely via FTP so you can upload and download files from anywhere. In essence, these are all viable solutions to your initial request. The differences come down to cost, your technical needs, your technical abilities and your comfort with their customer support.
Hope this is helpful.
|